Friday, July 17, 2015

Ishkhan Geloyan scored the first "Armenian" goal in
the Russian leagues in the newly restarted season.
(photo via sport.news.am)

With Armenia’s football championship clubs as bad as they
have ever been, and the beloved national team left at the mercy of Ruben
Hairapetian and Sargis Hovsepyan, Armenian football fans can find some solace in the fact that there is still plenty of Armenian football action to watch elsewhere.

The Russian football championship that is resuming this
month is home to 18 (!) players of note. In the Russian Premiere League these forwards (FW), midfielders (MF), defenders (DF) and one sole goalkeeper (GK) are:

FW Yura Movsisyan, MF Aras Ozbilis – Spartak Moscow

FW Edgar Manucharyan – Ural Yekaterinburg

MF Karlen Mkrtchyan – Anji Makhachkala

DF Robert Arzumanyan – Amkar Perm

MF Nikolay Safronidi, DF Denis Tumasyan, GK
David Yurchenko – Ufa

MF Khoren Bayramyan
- Rostov

And in the Football National League (2nd tier
tournament) they include:

18 players in 13 teams is probably the highest "Armenian" representation in the Russian leagues for some time.

There are of course Armenian players playing elsewhere in Europe: most prominently MF Henrikh Mkhritaryan for Borussia Dortmund in
Bundesliga, DF Gael Andonian for Olympique de Marseille in Ligue 1, MF Artem
Simonyan in FC Zurich in the Swiss Super League, MF Edgar Babayan at Denmark's Randers and MF Norair Mamedov-Aslanyan at
Almere City and MF Arshak Koryan at
Vitesse Arnhem in the Dutch Eerste and Eredivizie, respectively.

Additionally, MF Gevorg Ghazaryan may return to the
Ukrainian Premier League, if he is selected by Metallist Kharkov (Update: Ghazaryan signed on with Maritimo of Madeira, Portugal instead). FW Gegam Kadimyan plays for Olimpik
Donetsk (currently evacuated to Kiev). Elsewhere, Artur Yedigaryan is at Dinamo
Minsk, Belarus, Marcos Pizelli at Aktobe, Kazakhstan and Hrayr Mkoyan at
Esteghlal, Tehran, Iran.

Names of players of Armenian descent who have never played
for Armenia’s national teams are italicized.

*Alkhazov is actually of Assyrian descent, originally from
the village of Urmia in Russia’s North Caucasus; but considering that
community’s close ties to Armenians and his scoring prowess, Alkhazov deserves an honorable mention.